Adding the smaller front basket behind the headlight gives an extra tray for any items you want easy access to, or that are fragile and need to be separated from whatever you have loaded in the back. On grocery runs, for example, that rack is a great place to stash eggs or other delicate, crushable things. I recently made some baked goods to take to some friends, and that front basket was the perfect place to keep them while I rode to their homes.
The Cons: Suspension and Saddle
Before CAKE sent me the side stand, I noted that it was actually easier for me to get off the bike on the right side (instead of the left), and then hoist it up onto the center stand that way. My right leg is my stronger leg, so obviously your personal experience may vary based on your own strengths and weaknesses. When using the center stand, the rear basket doesn’t really come into play when dismounting the bike.
The Cons: The Motor Overheated Twice on Longer Rides
I immediately had flashbacks to the same behavior occurring along with the same error message on my first ride. It’s something that I later referred to in conversation as “limp-home mode,” although I don’t know if that’s an official thing with this bike. To me, it felt like that’s what it was doing; reducing power so that even if you had to do it slowly, you could at least get yourself away from where you currently were. (After all, this isn’t an e-bike, and it doesn’t have pedals so you can power it with your legs if you have to.)
There are three error codes listed in the manual, all of which use simple icons to show you what’s wrong. The one I was now seeing for the second time meant that the motor was overheating. The first time this happened, I had gone 23 miles on a warm day, with spirited riding. The second time this happened, I had gone about 25 miles on a cool day, with much more mixed (but mostly more relaxed and slower) riding.
The only suspension adjustability is the preload. It makes a small amount of difference if you have a lot of rough roads in your area, but you know what also helped in my case? Ratchet-strapping a spare battery into the rear basket, centered directly over the rear wheel. At the time, I just wanted to secure the spare battery so I’d have it if I needed it—but then I discovered an added, bonus benefit of a smoother ride with that added weight over the drive wheel.
What I didn’t fully appreciate until later about that first ride was the error message I had on the display right before the battery gave up. I’d gone about 23 miles on that ride—and apparently, the motor began overheating, as was indicated by an error message that I didn’t look up until (much) later.
Ride Mode Two gives a top speed of 70 kmh (44 mph) and offers slightly slower acceleration to help conserve energy. When we did our test ride in California in May, we were told by CAKE reps that this was probably the best mode for most occasions, because it offered a balanced performance in regular road traffic. Ride Mode Three gives you the 90 kmh (56mph) performance, but will of course sap the battery the quickest.
Over the weeks that I’ve been living with our CAKE ösa + review bike, I’ve taken it on a number of everyday errands. From retrieving parts for other bikes, to grocery shopping, visits to local businesses, friends’ houses, food pickup/dropoff and more, I feel as though I’ve gotten to know it a lot better over time.
The display is small, digital, and fairly minimalist. Those three things could be acceptable on their own—but unfortunately, the display is also not very bright. In the manual, there’s a line that says “Don’t ride your bike with polarized glasses as it will filter out the light from the display in certain angles.” That is a definite and noticeable problem as well—but it’s a separate problem. Even with no glasses (or tinted visors) whatsoever, if you try to view the display in bright sunlight, good luck to you.
Here are the pros and cons that I’ve noticed, from the time it arrived up until now.
The Pros: Basket Storage
With the ösa +, it’s much easier to simply load up the groceries, secure the bungee net, and take off—no underseat grocery Tetris necessary. (That said, my groceries would certainly get soaked if I left the CAKE out in the rain, which wouldn’t happen with the scooter.)
The CAKE ösa + features three ride modes and two brake modes, which you can set via the buttons on the right-hand side of the display. According to the manual, Ride Mode One offers the best range, and limits your top speed to 45 kmh (or 28 mph).
I’ll preface this section by saying that not every bike is good at every task. You wouldn’t take a trail bike on a highway and expect it to do well, for example—even if it’s everything you could ever want in a completely great trail bike. That’s not what it’s made for, and that’s not what it’s good at.
Brake Mode One does not engage motor braking, and lets the bike simply freewheel when you release the throttle. Brake Mode Two activates regenerative braking, so you can restore some energy into the battery upon throttle release, which should increase your battery range slightly.
My first ösa + experience in May, 2022, didn’t involve a basket—and while I did mostly get used to mounting/dismounting the bike at that time, this current ösa + outfitted with that huge rear basket is pretty easy when dismounting the bike on the accessory side stand. Why? I steady myself with my left hand on the basket as I swing my right leg over to get off.
After my first ride experience, when I had to get the bike towed home, the bike was pretty dirty from the tie-downs that the towing company had used to secure it. Both the grips and the saddle were pretty filthy. Now, as an electric bike, you of course don’t want to soak or submerge the thing. The owner’s manual even offers some specific instructions for cleaning, such as the fact that you shouldn’t clean it with the battery connector disconnected because when it’s not connected, that connector is water-sensitive.
Display on, in direct sunlight.
Anyway, that long ride went pretty well and uneventfully, for the most part—that is, until I was a little less than two miles from home. After having ridden about 25 miles or so, I saw that error message again. Around the same time, the battery dropped down to a single bar remaining. (I’m not certain in which order those things happened, as I was looking where I was going.)
Back on my First Ride of this bike, I told you about my battery woes—namely, that I’d thought I had a larger battery (and thus, longer range) than I actually had. That coupled with the spirited ride I took the bike on meant that we (me and the bike) ended up getting a tow home.
The ride and brake modes are well and good, but you have to reset them every single time you turn the bike on. Most of the time, I was going about my business in Ride Mode Two and Brake Mode Two. That meant that every time I hit the kill switch and parked to go do something off the bike, I had to punch in my Ride Mode and Brake Mode choices anew upon powering the bike back on, because the default settings start at Ride Mode One and Brake Mode One.
Display closeup, parked in same location on same day, in bright sunlight.